emaqi Adds Ikki Tousen and Bye Bye Earth in English

Orange Inc., an AI assisted localization company, announced on Friday that it is adding three more manga to its emaqi e bookstore: Ikki Tousen, Bye Bye Earth, and Hyakumanjou Labyrinth.

Ikki Tousen, by Yuji Shiozaki, follows Hakufu Sonsaku, a deceptively goofy high school girl with immense fighting potential. Sent to Nanyo Academy by her mother, who wants a quiet life for her, Hakufu instead finds herself hunted by assassins and forced to embrace her strength. The series first ran in 2000 and was previously published in English by Tokyopop as Battle Vixens, and it has inspired several anime and OVAs over the years.

Bye Bye Earth, with art by Ryū Asahi and a story by acclaimed author Tow Ubukata, offers a fresh spin on reincarnation fantasy. In a world of demi humans who take on animal forms, a girl named Belle, born as a plain human with no special traits, sets out to find others like herself. This release even includes a bonus chapter in novel form.

Ubukata’s original Bye Bye Earth novel dates back to 2000, with later editions illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano and Hyung-Tae Kim, and it received an anime adaptation in 2024 that has since continued into a second season.

emaqi, which launched its app in the United States and Canada last spring, says it aims to bring 100 manga that have never had an English release to readers by the end of the year.

My take: I love seeing older or overlooked titles finally reach English readers, especially ones that never got a release before. A goal of 100 fresh translations in a year is genuinely exciting for fans of the more obscure corners of manga.